Pauling saw the connections in chemistry

12:18 AM,
Feb. 28, 2013

Linus Pauling

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In his book, "Where Good Ideas Come From," Steven Johnson concludes his story of John Snow with this blindingly penetrating observation: "Chance favors the connected mind."

Linus Pauling is one of the great examples.

Linus Pauling was born in Portland, Ore., on Feb. 28, 1901, the first year that the Nobel Prize committees selected its first recipients; he is the only person to have been awarded two unshared Nobel prizes, first for chemistry, in 1954, and then the Peace Prize, in 1962 (only three other individuals have won two Nobel prizes). ...